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StarWarsChicks.com is currently undergoing site maintenance. Some things probably aren't working very well right now, but at least the website is back up!

We honestly aren't really sure what happened, but we needed to blow the site away and go back to an older version. The prospect was pretty daunting and we just haven't been able to devote the time required to get the site back up and running until now.

We should be able to recover the missing posts from last fall, but it has to be done manually, so bear with us!

Once again I find myself feeling as though I'm standing on the first floor of a multi-story department store, staring up and around, wondering where all of the customers are. Unfortunately, we are short on quirky artists and their magical mannequins, and thus I have no idea how we're going to make this place great again.

This year is StarWarsChicks.com's 10th anniversary. There have been some great years, wonderful memories, fantastic fund-raisers and a lot of great content posted here over the last decade. Unfortunately, this site has been dying a long, slow death for many, many years. It has a webmaster (me!), and a bunch of people who care about it and would hate to see it die, but no one to make this site alive and well again. Even if I had more time to devote to this site, I am not much of a blogger, news reporter, editorialist, social butterfly or interviewer. I'm much more comfortable writing code, and a little bit of fiction. The back-end of the StarWarsChicks.com website is fantastic! It just isn't getting used, and that makes me sad. I also have a brand new Fanfiction Archive all set to go, but no one to help me manage it, so it's sitting in a corner collecting virtual dust right now as well.

I really want to change all this, and make StarWarsChicks into a wonderful site again, but I can't do it without help! I need some enthusiastic writers to step up and take charge here. The site has so much potential and possibility, and that's where you come in! Do you have ideas about what you'd like to see posted here? Do you like writing polls? Are you a Star Wars blogger looking for a larger audience? Do you read novels and enjoy reviewing them? Do you wish you had an outlet for your rants about the lack of merchandise for female fans?

If you're interested in making StarWarsChicks.com the thriving community that it once was, comment on this post. Offer up your thoughts, ideas, and most importantly, your time. This site is dedicated to every little girl who grew up wanting to fly an X-wing or be Princess Leia. Let's keep it going for all of the little girls who want to fly a pod racer or be a Jedi!

Sorry about the site going down this past week! The domain registrar had an out dated email address in their records, so I never received the notice that the domain name was expiring. As you can see, the problem has now been fixed! Email addresses @starwarschicks.com are working again as well.

... actually, it was the late seventies, era of Charlie’s Angels, Abba, and ‘pocket’ calculators the size of house-bricks. I saw Star Wars in 1978 (it came to the UK a year later than in the US; and there was no ‘A New Hope’ tag back then) and was completely and utterly amazed. The special effects! The music! The story! The princess who wasn’t blonde and didn’t scream and/or wait for a man to save her!!

Yes, Star Wars made a big impression on this wee brunette from Scotland.

I would have given all my pocket money, my little brother, and possibly a limb or two to be able to watch it every day afterwards ... but unfortunately videos had yet to be invented. My parents wouldn’t let me spend my entire waking hours at the cinema, and all too soon the movie’s run finished. I was left with a gaping hole in my life (priorities of an eleven-year-old, remember) that not even Dr Who and Battlestar Galactica could fill.

A few months later, with rumours of a sequel still very much in development hell, I found a slightly dog-eared paperback copy of a book in my local library that ended up helping me through those long years between ANH and Empire. “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” by Alan Dean Foster was commissioned by George Lucas, king of movie merchandising, in case the movie flopped (allegedly). It’s a Luke-n-Leia adventure that, with hindsight and the nit-pickiness of an obsessive-compulsive, has several inconsistencies (Vader’s lightsaber is blue and there is a somewhat disturbing amount of sexual tension between the oblivious siblings), but I read it with unrestrained glee and a new sense of Hope. I bought my own copy which eventually fell to bits through over-reading (the dog attack didn’t help; labradors are apparently not Foster fans).

So, that was my first foray into the Expanded Universe, and even after we acquired a video player, I still read novelisations and any other SW books I could lay my hands on. In 1993-ish I discovered Tim Zahn’s “Heir to the Empire”, and thought all my Christmases had come at once; I’m currently reading the Legacy of the Force series.

So, dear SWChicks, enlighten me, please. What was the first Star Wars book you read?

I'm happy to announce that the StarWarsChicks.com e-card service is back up and running. We're no longer using the old Bravenet service (which barely worked anyway). The new system is much simpler, and hopefully easier to use.

Well, I tried out a new recipe this week. It was a big hit at my house - even my Hubby, who is usually a chocolate-only-kind-of-guy really enjoyed this change-of-pace dessert. So easy, even a Gungan could do it...:lol: (no, I'm not Jar-Jar bashing...I love Jar-Jar!)

2. Grease and lightly flour six Pyrex custard cups, large size (You can make eight smaller cakes if you use the smaller custard cups - these turn out pretty big), and place them on a jelly-roll pan for baking

3. Pour the prepared batter in the custard cups, about 2/3 full

4. Place the jelly-roll pan with the filled custard cups in the oven, and bake for approx. 25 minutes. You'll want to check after about 15 minutes - the centers should be almost done, but a little gooey (some batter on toothpick)

5. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes

6. Use a butter knife to loosen the cakes from the edges of the custard cups, then invert onto individual serving plates.

7. Cut the center out of the cake - just enough to form the top of a "volcano."

8. Dust with powdered (confectioner's) sugar if desired...if you're like Palpatine you can use Unnnnnliiiimited Poooooowder if you'd like :lol:

8. Top with scoop(s) of vanilla ice cream and finish with the strawberry sauce - to taste (I used a LOT! Calories? Naahh...!)

(We put the cooled cakes in the microwave to re-heat them just a tad before eating a second helping since they cool quickly. The centers will finish baking, but it's still just as yummy - if not better!)

I am as tickled as a wild gundark to be part of the Star Wars Chicks community! I will be serving as a recipe writer for our site. I hope to post about once a week, and will be bringing you plenty of ideas to whet your appetite! I might even throw a few craft ideas in the mix - if my mood warrants it - so you never know what you might find!

If you are a member of the Hyperspace blogging community on starwars.com, you might be familiar with me - I have been a regular blogger there for almost three years now, and go by the name of MomOf2YoungPadawan, hence my nickname MO2YP. You can also call me Mamadala :-D

I'll start out with a recipe that is a favorite at my house. It appears in The Star Wars Cookbook: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes by Robin Davis. I'm sure many (if not most) of you have made these at some point, but they remain my #1 Star Wars recipe, as well as a treat highly requested by my two young boys. The uncooked dough is absolutely amazing, but not necessarily recommended to eat because of the raw eggs (but we do it anyway!!) Got Blue Milk?! Read the rest of this entry »

As you may have noticed - how could you not? - StarWarsChicks.com has just undergone a major renovation. We have also moved to a new webhosting provider.

Things may be a little buggy on the site for a little while until we get things sorted out properly. If you experience any technical difficulties, please let us know! We may be aware of the issue, but there's always a good chance that we don't know about it yet, and won't until someone tells us!

Let us know by posting a comment to this article or emailing us: jedicrysta [at] starwarschicks.com.

Why does Japan get all the cool toys? What girl geek wouldn't love her own R2-D2 USB hub? It even moves, lights up, and whistles! And we have to admit, the Vader one is rather cool as well. Read the full report at Crave.